Sunday, December 30, 2012

There are not too many fly-speckers out there in philately anymore, especially for the battleship revenues, for which fly specks, e.g. double transfers, plate scratches, layout lines among others, are quite common. But David Thompson keeps his magnifying glass handy and his scanner to more closely examine his battleships. We don't report every new finding on this site, but occasionally there is an interesting item. Today we present an R164 block of six with two fly-speckable stamps, one with a plate scratch and the other with a double transfer. See the upper right and middle right stamps in the block below.

Below: Upper right stamp with double transfer. David has marked the clear DT points with white arrows:

Saturday, December 29, 2012

Today we have a cancel from a firm that appears to be "Whitmay" Mills. Problem is that neither David Thompson, who sent in this scan, nor I can find anything about this mill, or a person with the this name.

Two questions for the crowd out there in internet land. Does this look like, and is the manuscript cancel indeed Whitmay Mills, and if so, can you tell us anything about it? We've thought of Whitney Mills, but it just doesn't look like Whitney.

Friday, December 28, 2012

Metellus L. C. Funkhouser, photographed as a Major in the US Army. As a Captain, Metellus saw action in the Spanish American War. Montgomery & Funkhouser was a Chicago-based insurance agency.

MONTGOMERY & FUNKHOUSER

SEP

10

1900

CHICAGO

Langlois scan

The retired Major Funkhouser would become involved in Chicago law enforcement. As 2nd Deputy Police Commissioner he would have responsibilities to clean up aspects of organized crime in Chicago. His status was such that a contract was put out on his life in 1914.

Wednesday, December 26, 2012

Mr. Jennings was with the N. K. Fairbank Company, a manufacturer of lard and soaps. He was member #6007 of the Chicago Board of Trade.

The N.K. Fairbank Co. no doubt maintained a registered trader on the CBOT to purchase contracts for some of the primary inputs for the consumer products that it manufactured including soap and baking products. They prospered in a city with great meat packing companies like Armour where meat packing by-products were plentiful. The company had factories in Chicago, St. Louis, Montreal and Louisiana and had international offices in the United Kingdom and Germany. Gold Dust Washing Powder was one of the most successful cleansing product lines in twentieth century North America.

Today, however, we feature a stamp that likely came from a more common domestic bill of lading fromt the L. E. Wagon Company. The stamp below is off document, but I am certain that I have a couple of L. E. Wagon BOLs from Henry Tolman's collection, with cancels similar to the one below, regrettably all in storage in northern Virginia, waiting for my return from Kenya. For now, I will focus on the single below and the L. E. Wagon Company:

L. E. WAGON CO.,

APR

20

1900

ST. LOUIS.

Langlois scan

An L. E. Wagon Company product from 1894

Luedinghaus-Espenschied, based in St. Louis, Missouri, built wagons of all types, including wagons suitable for travel out west from the gateway city of St. Louis. L-E was manufacturing wagons by by 1850s, and they equipped 1000s trekking west to find new homes in the great expanse from the prairies to the pacific.

Louis and Henry Espenschied of 148 Broadway, St Louis, Missouri were German natives who first opened a St Louis blacksmith shop in 1843. They soon expanded to wagons and by the 1850s were making large numbers for pioneers heading west.

Henry passed away in the early 1850s, but Louis continued, renaming the firm the L. Espenschied Wagon Co. Mormon records indicate that for the great migration of 1853, the settlers purchased fourteen wagons for $58 apiece from Louis Espenschied in St Louis for their westward trek to the great Salt Lake. During the civil war Espenschied received a large contract for wagons and wheels for the Union Army.

Hanna F. Arensmann married a young carriagemaker named John Henry Luedinghaus on May 9, 1858 in St. Louis. Money was given to young John Henry from his in-laws to form the Arensmann-Luedinghaus Wagon Manufacturing Co. soon after.

By the 1870s both firms were specializing in heavy commercial and farm wagons and they decided to join forces in 1880 as the Luedinghaus & Espenschied Wagon Co.

Louis Espenschied died in 1887, but his sons and Luedinghaus kept the business going, which survived into the 1930s making heavy wagons, trailers, commercial bodies and motor trucks (Luedinghaus Truck of the 1920s).

Friday, December 21, 2012

Marquand was a wealthy financier and railroad director. He was best known as a philanthropist and a patron of the arts. As shown here, both he and his wife were painted by the great American painter John Singer Sargent.

Thursday, December 20, 2012

Noble & Mestre cancels are common on 1898 revenue series stamps, yet there are no photos of Mssrs Noble or Mestre in this site's favorite NYSE 1898 reference, King's Views of the New York Stock Exchange. Also, I cannot find much in the way of history of any kind on this firm. So if you know anything, please write to 1898revenues@gmail.com.

Monday, December 17, 2012

THE L. KINSEY COMPANY, Incorporated: Brokers; Nox. 11 and 13 West Pearl Stree.--The vast volume of business transacted here in trade, commerce and manufactures, renders Indianapolis one of the most desirable fields for banking operations to be found anywhere, and that the field is extending is evidenced by the prosperous existence of so many houses conducting business on a commission basis in the handling of grain, provisions, stocks, and bonds. Prominent and pre-eminently popular among such is the corporation of the L. A. Kinsey Co., whose offices are located in the Commercial Club Building Nos. 11 and 13 West Pearl Street. The concern was established as an individual enterprise in 1892 by Mr. L. A. Kinsey, state corporate charter under the existing trading title being secured in 1895. The company has an ample cash capitalization, the personnel of the executive management as follows: L. A. Kinsey, President; F. M. Ketcham, secretary; Maud S. Elliott, treasurer. The company deal largely in stocks and investment securities, handle options on the Chicago Grain and Provision Market, and as a matter of fact, are the leading stock and share brokers in Indiana's state capital city. Having direct communication by leased wires with the leading exchanges of the country, they can buy or sell for cash or on margin any of the listed stocks, bonds, or speculative securities. Branch offices of the concern are likewise conducted at Chicago, Anderson, Muncie, and Martinsville, Ind.

Friday, December 14, 2012

The firm of Schwartz, Dupee held memberships on the New York Stock Exchange and the Chicago Board of Trade. Below are two photos from the 1897 King's Views of the New York Exchange. The cancels on the stamps in this post were placed in Chicago.

Schwartz, Dupee & Co.

JAN 31 1901

CHICAGO

David Thompson scan

Chicago Board of Trade Members of the firm Schwartz, Dupee included:

CBOT #3462 Gustavus A. Schwartz

CBOT #430 John Dupee Jr.

CBOT #6044 Isaac Bloom

CBOT #6260 John W. Conley

From A History of Chicago, Its Men and Institutions:

John Dupee, of the Board of Trade firm of Schwartz, Dupee & Company, was born at Bangor, Maine, and is the son of John and Eleanor Winslow (Pratt) Dupee. He was educated in the Boston public schools, in which city his parents resided except for a brief period, and after his graduation form the Park Latin School he began his business career as an employee of the house of Howe & Leeds, wholesale grocers. In 1883, together with the late Mr. Charles Schwartz, Mr. Dupee organized the firm of Schwartz, Dupee. In 1884 Mr. G. A. Schwartz was admitted as a partner, and in 1891 Mr. John W. Conley, who for a long time was connected with John F. Rumsey & Company, and Mr. I. J. Bloom were admitted to membership. Mr. Charles Schwartz died in 1893, and Mr. G. A. Schwartz retired September 1, 1899.

Thursday, December 13, 2012

Lasier & Hooper were Commission Merchants at the Chicago Board of Trade. David S. Lasier was CBOT member # 5229. This stamp was part of a lot of futures contract memoranda of sale from Chicago. The initials L&H are uniquely associated with the firm Lasier & Hooper during the 1898 tax period on the CBOT.

Tuesday, December 11, 2012

This stamp came from a lot of Chicago documents that were all fragments of futures memoranda of sale. The initials WHB&Co. can be uniquely attributed to William H. Beebe & Co. from the 1898 tax period among members of the CBOT. Mr. Beebe was a commission merchant.

CBOT #2191 William H. Beebe

From The Educational History of Illinois, 1912:

William Hempstead Beebe was born at Galena, Illinois, September 18, 1846, his father being Thomas H. Beebe, born at St. Louis, Missouri, in 1819, and his mother, Catherine Eddowes, of Dover, Delaware. The family came to Chicago in the spring of 1853, where Thomas H. Beebe engaged in the commission business as president of the Peshtigo Company, being associated with William B. Ogden.

William Hempstead Beebe was educated in the private schools of Chicago and the University of Chicago, class of 1866. On leaving college, he entered the office of the Peshtigo Company, lumber manufacturers, and afterward engaged in the lumber business with Edward Hempstead, under the firm name of Hempstead & Beebe. Subsequently he joined the Chicago Board of Trade, and for twenty-seven years was engaged in the grain commission business with R. Hall McCormick, as McCormick & Beebe, and afterward under the style of William H. Beebe & Co.

While a member of the Board of Trade, Mr. Beebe served successively as a member of the Arbitration and Appeals Committees and as a director of the Board. In 1887 he was appointed by Mayor Roche a member of the Library Board, serving on the Administration Committee, and was elected president of the Board for 1888 and 1889. In 1893 he was appointed by Mayor Washburne a member of the Board of Education, serving as chairman of the Committee on Buildings and Grounds during 1895.

Mr. Beebe is a member of the Presbyterian Church, was married in October, 1871, to Miss Kate Krebs, of Baltimore, Maryland. He is agent for the Estate of L. J. McCormick, with offices in the McCormick building. He resides at 154 East Superior street, Chicago.

Monday, December 10, 2012

William Mumford's firm in Chicago dealt in the pedestrian farm commodities of hay and animal feeds, and apparently provided for a comfortable and successful life for his family. The nature of his business is a great example of the difference between the type of firms that used vast quantities of 1898 revenue stamps in Chicago versus those in New York City. New York was the center of American capital and finance, and had large and numerous firms that traded in corporate equities and bonds. The Chicago Board of Trade, however, was populated by many that were absorbed in the grounded world of the mid-western farm economy. It is hard to imagine a man like J. P. Morgan even thinking about hay, much more doing business with it like Mr. Mumford.

W. R. M. & CO.

NOV 14 1898

David Thompson scan

W. R. Mumford & Company was listed in the 1900 CBOT annual report as a Grain, Feed and Hay firm. The staff included the following CBOT members:

#1125 William R. Mumford

#5223 W. O. Mumford

From the February 1923 edition of the trade journal Flour and Feed:

Death has again invaded the ranks of the Chicago Feed Dealer's association and has taken away one of its most honored and highly respected members, William R. Mumford. Mr. Mumford was one of the founders of the association and was its first secretary, which position he occupied fore several years, and it is due to his earnest work that the association succeeded and is today second to none in the country.

Mr. Mumford was a native of Pennsylvania, born in Wilkes Barre, March 5, 1842. He came to Chicago about 1865 and at once entered into the hay and grain business and by industry and close attention to business soon established an extensive trade.

He organized the firm of W. R. Mumford & Company that year and in 1875 became a member of the Chicago Board of Trade and at his death was one of the oldest active members of that organization. He was an active member of the Chicago Hay Receivers association and served one year as its president. He was a most genial companion; always met you with a smile and hearty grasp of the hand. never to busy to speak a pleasant word.

During the session of the National Hay association held in Chicago two years ago at the banquet given at the Drake hotel, he as referred to by the president of that organization was "the grand old man of the hay trade"...

Sunday, December 9, 2012

As previously mentioned, On Beyond Holcombe is off through the remainder of the year but will be back in 2013. If you are visiting this site looking for Malcolm's column, thanks for stopping by. Meanwhile, enjoy this cancel from the P. C. Bank.

The P. C. Bank

APR 10 1899

Pearl City, Ill.

Langlois scan

From A History of Stephenson County, Illinois, 1910:

The banking facilities of Pearl City are un­excelled for a village of the size. The Pearl City Bank, a private corporation, was organized about twenty years ago, by Simon Tollmeier, who became the first president, and has since continued to hold the office. The firm represents a capital of $25,000, and a personal responsibility of $250,000. The officers are: President, Simon Tollmeier; vice president, Dr. S. H, Aurand; cashier, A. L. Kurd; directors, Simon Tollmeier, Dr. S. H. Aurand, Frank R. Erwin, Fred Tollmeier, Frederick Althof, Henry Althof, August Althof, Charles Althof, Al­bert Althof, Otto Althof. The bank occupies a frame structure on Main street which is well fitted out for its banking offices.

Pearl City check from 1904

Pearl City is a town in north western Illinois that by the 1880s was a stop on the Chicago Great Western Railway. Today the town has a population of 2,000.

Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Bines was a player in the high business community in Chicago. He was born in Bloomfleld, Ohio in 1842, arrived in Chicgo in 1866 and by 1869 was a member of the Chicago Board of Trade. By the time of this cancel he was a member of the Board of Directors.

The Advent Review and Sabbath Herald from January 21, 1902 reported the Mr. Bines had enough capital to speculate in Chicago area land claims:

Robert Bines, of Chicago, began, on the I7th inst., the " payment, at Dowagiac, Mich., of $34,000 to the Pottawatomie Indians [$ioo to each] for their title to lands along the lake front of Chicago." He evidently believes their claims to these lands to be sustained.

Bines was in the brick business too, as reported in the History of Chicago, Illinois by John Moses in 1895:

Among the leading establishments engaged in the manufacture at this time are the following: The Tiffany Pressed Brick Company is a corporation composed of the following directors : J. Van Inwagen, president ; J. Tiffany, vice-president ; N. K. Fairbank, Robert Bines, and J. B. Lyon. The capital of the concern is $200,000, and the value of the investment estimated at $300,000. It employs 75 hands, to whom are paid wages amounting to $4,500 per year. The value of the material used is $20,000, and of the output 100,000. The factory is at Momence, 111.

Charles B. Congdon, of the firm of Hamill & Congdon, was born in Massachusetts, in the year 1853, and received his education in that State. In 1873, he came to Chicago, and went into the commission business, in the ensuing year, with O. W. Clapp, remaining with him until 1879. in which year he entered the firm of which he is now a member. He became a member of the Board of Trade in 1875, and is one of the directors of the Lake Bluff Hotel and Improvement Company. He was married, in December, 1876, to Miss Cynthia Willsie, and has three children — Harry, Bessie and Louise.

Search 1898 Revenues -- or Inquire at 1898revenues@gmail.com

The Cotton Trade in late 19th Century America

Click on Edgar Degas' painting "Cotton Exchange" to explore posts on this site from firms in the cotton trade during the 1898 tax period.

Stock Brokers at 1898 Revenues

Explore 1898 to 1902 stock broker cancels by clicking on the brokers above.

Strong Cobb & Company or Snyder, Chaffee & Company?

How did an internet auction and an observant collector in 2011 correct a mistake made by leading collectors like Clarence Chappell and Morton Dean Joyce going back 70+ years? Read Frank Sente's philatelic detective story by clicking on the stamp.

Publishing 1898 Revenues

John Langlois is the publisher of this site. He began seriously collecting 1898s in 1999, soon after his return from Liberia. Now a resident of Kenya, John publishes 1898 Revenues as a way to keep up with his collection and communicate with other collectors. Additional content contributors to this site include: Dave Thompson, Bob Hohertz, Frank Sente, Malcolm A. Goldstein, Bob Patetta, Tim Kohler, Ron Lesher, Bart Rosenberg, Len McMaster, Hermann Ivester, Richard Friedberg, J. W. Palmer, Michael Mahler, Rick Lokos, and Sean Roberts. These collectors have sent in scans and sometimes explanatory information regarding their stamps or documents for posting on this site. Dave Thompson is a prodigous supplier of material and ideas, while Malcolm, Bob H. and Frank S. have contributed posts to this site. We welcome other contributors! Write to us at 1898revenues@gmail.com.

Note on the title painting

Above is a low res image of Mort Kunstler's painting The Rough Riders. The painting depicts the 1st Volunteer US Cavalry led by Teddy Roosevelt charging Kettle Hill near Santiago, Cuba during the Spanish American War. See more of Kunstler's work at http://www.mortkunstler.com/. Image copyright Mort Kunstler.

1898 Revenues Wanted

Values for Series of 1898 Revenue Stamps - The "Battleship Revenues"

Most 1898 "Battleship" stamps, whether of the documentary or the proprietary series, are fairly common and cheap stamps, despite having been issued and used more than 100 years ago. If you have one of the more common values of this series, your stamp or stamps are likely worth less than a dollar in used condition, regardless of perforation or other distinguishing characteristics.

Whether you look at online catalogs for these stamps, such as Eric Jackson's website, or you refer to a standard reference for values of these stamps like the Scott US Specialized Stamp Catalog, you will find only a few stamps of this series to be worth more than a few dollars when in used condition.

These are only example values and ranges of values for some of the more common stamps you might find in old documents or in a relative's collection, and they are only meant to be a guide. However, there are some stamps of this series that are a bit more scarce than others and consequently command higher values. In particular:

In all cases, any of these stamps found on old documents or on old products, especially the proprietary stamps, are worth far more when still on the original item or document of use. Don't remove them from the document or old box or bottle unless you are certain you know what you are doing!

Bob Hohertz on 1898 Stamped Paper

Frank Sente's American Philatelist 1898 Revenues Cover Story

In the 1950s, Morton Dean Joyce updated a list of printed cancels on the battleship proprietaries compiled by Clarence Chappell. Joyce's is a very long list consisting of more than one hundred companies and thousands of cancel dates. In the years since Joyce completed his list, many new cancel dates have been demonstrated to exist, and an update of the 1950s list is needed.

This site is attempting that update. Using the Joyce/Chappell lists and the former collection of Henry Tolman (ARA #25) as a base, a gradual effort will be made to post updated lists to the best of my knowledge, making a call for those that can contribute new dates and new images of those cancels.

Following in this column are quick links to excel files of these lists by company. Also are links to the posts that I have made on this blog regarding these companies and their cancels.

Feature: G. H. Mumm Printed Cancels

FEATURE: CHATTANOOGA MEDICINE COMPANY PRINTED CANCELS

Criteria for Cancels Included in these Updated Lists

The updated lists on this site will not include handstamped cancels. Printed and typed cancels will be included. This differs from the Chappell and Joyce criteria for inclusion.

Joyce used criteria for including cancels in his lists based on Chappell's original criteria. From the introduction of Chappell's original list: "Only the printed and typed cancels will be given consideration in this list. The only exception being those firms who also had private die stamps in this period. The handstamps of these few companies are of general interest and I feel they should be included." I don't think the "general interest" consideration is a strong enough reason to complicate an already complicated set of lists. The handstamps listed by Chappell and Joyce are not printed by definition, they are likely not exhaustive, and by virtue of being handstamps are prone to innumerable types and subtypes. I reason that if a new list is of printed cancels, we should keep it that way, and let others that have have done more work on the subject of proprietary handstamps handle those cancels.

Thus, if you are interested in the handstamp cancels of any of the firms in the updated printed cancel lists, please refer to the excellent work of Robert Mustacich and his Battleship Desk Reference at http://www.battleship-revenues.com/.

The practice of eliminating handstamp cancels from the updated lists will have implications for the revision of cancel types from the Joyce lists. For example, the first few Antikamnia cancel types according to both Joyce and Chappell are handcancels. These cancels will no longer be included as cancel types.

The goal will be to minimize confusion for those who come to collect these cancels and make sense out of them.

1898's Personal Kenya Blog

Photos from Kenya - Click on the Hyrax!

Join the American Revenue Association

Click on the seal to go to the ARA site where you can find an application